Mantle plumes and plate motions

This paper elaborates the hypothesis that convection plumes may be rising from the lower mantle to spread out in the asthenosphere and drive lithospheric plates about and thus possibly provide the primary mechanism which governs the behaviour of the earth's surface. The paper notes some characteristics of plumes and identifies more than thirty by the hot spots which overlie them. Most lie close to mid-ocean ridges and have produced aseismic ridges trending away from them on either plate. A few have been overridden by plates to produce single, isolated chains of seamounts and islands. One plume may have uplifted the Colorado Plateau. Such distinctions serve to identify five types of hot spots.Most plates are in motion over the lower mantle. They are considered to be driven by the plumes, but their paths are influenced by interactions with other plates. Some temporarily become more or less stationary relative to the lower mantle. It is held that stationary plates, of which Africa and Southeast Asia may be present examples, develop special characteristics among which much volcanism, epeirogenic uplift, rifting and the development of basins and swells are diagnostic.It is well-known that if two plates approach one another at a subduction zone that a continental plate generally overrides an oceanic one. It is here suggested that the question of which plate is more nearly stationary over the mantle is important and determines the character of the continental margin. It is held that, if a continental plate advances over an oceanic one which is fixed over the mantle, a migrating marginal trench and mountains of Andean type with huge batholiths will form on the leading edge of the continent. On the other hand, if a continental plate is fixed and one or more oceanic plates are advancing and sliding under it, island arcs (and, when a collision with another continent occurs, mountains of Appalachian type) will form along each coast towards which a plate is advancing.